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Thursday, May 11, 2017

Court sets June 9 for Rafizi’s appeal on insulting Umno members

This follows the Pandan MP's RM1,800 fine last year for allegedly insulting Umno members in an interview three years ago.

SHAH ALAM: The High Court here has fixed June 9 for the decision on Pandan MP Rafizi Ramli’s appeal against his conviction for insulting Umno members in a newspaper interview three years ago.

Justice Ghazali Cha set the date at case mention today.

Rafizi’s lawyer, Gobind Singh, informed the court that their representation letter to the Attorney-General’s Chambers was rejected but they would proceed to appeal.

Deputy public prosecutor Iskandar Ahmad appeared for the prosecution.

Last year, Rafizi was fined RM1,800 by the Petaling Jaya Sessions Court, which found him guilty of insulting and provoking anger among Umno members in an interview.

He had claimed that Umno was behind the religious attacks in Selangor in 2014.

His statement appeared in an article entitled “Analyst: Will Rafizi quit if Selangor not toppled?” published on fz.com and in The Edge Financial Daily.

In handing down the sentence, the court took into consideration his position as an MP who was not supposed to utter statements which could raise public ire.

Rafizi paid the fine. However, he has two other convictions: for organising a Black 505 rally without a 10-day notice under the Peaceful Assembly Act (PAA), and breaching the Official Secrets Act (OSA) by leaking details on the 1MDB audit report.

He was fined RM1,950 for the offence under Section 9(1)(a) of PAA last year by the Kuala Lumpur Sessions Court.

For the OSA offence, meanwhile, he was handed a three-year jail sentence by the Sessions Court for two charges of possessing and leaking page 98 of the report.

He has appealed against the OSA conviction and custodial sentence.

He also faces another charge under the Banking and Financial Institution Act for revealing confidential banking details in relation to the NFC scandal.

Rafizi will be unable to stand in the coming election if he fails to set aside his OSA conviction and jail sentence.

Article 48 of the Federal Constitution disqualifies a person from being an MP for five years should the elected representative be convicted and sentenced to more than one year in jail, or fined more than RM2,000. -FMT